With a possible market recovery in sight, owners are bringing their homes up
to scratch.

Home owners are breathing a sigh of relief. The darkest days of the recession may be over. As the Bank of England upgraded its economic forecast and Sir Mervyn King announced that "a recovery is in sight", the property world began to chirrup and the nesting instinct kicked in. Now could be the best time for years to spend, mend and extend.

This is particularly true for owners who want to sell. "These days, buyers want properties that are oven-ready. For sellers, this means it's worth spending money," says Luke Brady of Savills in Bath. "Selling is not only about price but it's also about saleability, and the competition between sellers rather than buyers.

"As there are fewer buyers in the market, it has never been more important to be the best house. If you take two properties priced at £650,000, the one that is finished to the higher standard is the one that will sell."

The Government is doing its best to encourage us all to get building and smartening. It has introduced plans that would allow home owners to build conservatories or extensions stretching 26ft from the home without having to get planning permission (though it has since agreed that they should get approval from their immediate neighbours first). From total renovations to converted garages, new kitchens or just a coat of paint, many of us are finally going ahead with home improvements we have sat on for too long.

Some have been ahead of the game. Emma Jones had given up her work as a high-powered marketeer for Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy and Givenchy to stay at home in Hampshire and look after her three year-old, Eddie, and baby, Jonty. On her way to Eddie's nursery each day, she passed a thatched cottage with rotting windows, draped in tarpaulin, with a for sale sign outside. "It niggled me," she says. "It was so neglected. It obviously terrified buyers, because it wasn't selling." As she didn't work, Emma knew she couldn't borrow, but she found a financial backer and bought the cottage at auction the week before Christmas for £200,000. She needed to rewire, re-plumb, find specialists to rethatch and restore the cob walls. But she set herself a nine-week programme to do it up.

Hillside Cottage in Penton Mewsey now oozes charm and is for sale through Smiths Gore (01264 774900) at £415,000. Her backer will take 25 per cent of the profit. Emma hopes to surf on the new ripples of optimism.

Savills predicts mainstream prices could lift by 11.5 per cent between 2012 and the end of 2017, and if the Government's Help to Buy scheme kicks in as expected, it says prices could rise by 15.3 per cent. Emma's backer now wants her to take on another three projects. "The problem is finding the next one, because anything which needs work is being snapped up," she says. Others like her have realised there is a demand for restored properties.

In areas such as London's Clapham and Wandsworth, which have long worked as weathervanes for the market, the roads are lined with skips as people mine every last inch of space to create added value. The same is true along the wealth corridors leading from the capital. In Cobham, Surrey, people are extending because they cannot afford the price leap from three or four bedrooms to a five-bedroom house. Jeremy Campbell-Harris of John D Wood says the stretch from £500,000-£800,000 to the £1.2 million-£1.5 million bracket is too much for growing families, so they stay put and make extra space.

But the question is, how much to spend? It seems that the more expensive your house is, the more likely you are to do well. "If you spend 20 per cent of the value of a £1 million house, will it add 40 per cent? Probably not," says Lindsay Cuthill of Savills in Fulham. "But if you spend 20 per cent of the value of a £5 million house, the answer will probably be yes. Change must be in proportion and keep the house in balance. So converting one bedroom of three to an en-suite bathroom may cause imbalance, but in a four-bedroom house it might enhance it." Bathrooms probably let us down more often than we realise.

Tamsin Allen, the creative director ofbathrooms.com, says they are routinely overlooked and that about 41 per cent of bathrooms are now 25 years old. Even a shower upgrade can make all the difference, she says.

On the Norfolk Broads, Ray and Stephanie Price have fitted out their birdwatcher's haven, Water's Edge, with a new kitchen and bathroom. "It was fine as it was but we wanted more storage," says Stephanie. "And we have a modern en-suite bathroom. I think it makes it much more saleable." Fine & Country (01603 221888) is selling at £650,000.

For those who don't have the skills to upgrade themselves, B & Q has launched a new Homefit service (01236 634557) using local tradesmen at agreed fixed prices. They will work on kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms but also take on "smaller project solutions" such as laying hard floors, tiling, replacing taps and installing boilers.

Garden rooms are the new conservatories

According to estate agents, the conservatory is not as fashionable as it once was. Garden rooms are all the rage.

This house in Bedwyn Common, Wiltshire, has been given a modern twist with a party bar in the kitchen and a garden room (bedroom, bathroom and pizza oven), which means you can have a garden party even if it drizzles. Knight Frank (01488 682726) is asking for £1.5 million.

If you want a ready-made that is more Doctor Who than rustic, you can nestle a Farmer's Cottage Deluxe Sphere into the rhubarb bed. It costs £16,995 from John Lewis, where sales of outdoor spheres are up 137 per cent on this time last year.